Impact of Nutrition Labels on Consumer Purchasing Intentions

May 10, 2016 updated by: Serge HERCBERG, University of Paris 13

Impact of Different Front-of-pack Nutrition Labels on Consumer Purchasing Intentions: Randomized Trial in the NutriNet-Santé Study

The purpose of this interventional study is to compare the impact of four different Front-Of-Pack (FOP) nutrition labels on purchasing intentions. This study is nested in the ongoing web-based prospective observational NutriNet-Santé cohort study, including on December 2014 around 150,000 participants. The investigators will perform a five-arm randomized trial where participants will be subjected to different FOP nutrition label formats: Guidelines Daily Amount (GDA), Multiple Traffic Lights (MTL), 5-Color Nutrition Label (5-CNL), Green Tick (Tick) and a 'no label' condition. The impact of front-of-pack nutrition labels on the nutritional quality of the shopping cart will be assessed. Participants from the NutriNet-Santé cohort study will be randomly assigned to one of these five experimental conditions according to their sociodemographic characteristics.

Purchasing intentions will be assessed using an experimental web-based supermarket designed to look like a regular online grocery store. The supermarket includes 269 unique products divided into 4 categories: dairy products, processed meat/delicatessen, savory and breakfast/sugary products. Each category is then separated into specific products families like yogurt, milk, cheese, etc. for the dairy products category. Inside a food family, the selection of foodstuffs will be made to obtain a representative sample of the products commonly sold in French supermarket. For each type of products, at least two variants are proposed. Products are retailers or manufacturers branded. Categories of products that are not usually bought each week, or which are likely to be bought from different sources are not included on the web-based supermarket.

Participants are asked to simulate a shopping situation: they have to select a week worth of food for their family among proposed products. If the user is not able to find a product he/she usually buy, the instruction is to select similar product among proposed ones.

Information provided for each product is: name, price and the picture with the FOP label/or not according to the experimental condition to which the participant is allocated. A brief explanation of the FOP label used is also given.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

11981

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • France
      • Bobigny, France, F-93017
        • Equipe de recherche en Epidémiologie nutritionnelle

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Being a participant of the NutriNet-Santé cohort study
  • Completing the preliminary questionnaire about nutrition knowledge and purchasing habits
  • Completing online shopping in the experimental supermarket

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Not going shopping usually
  • Having a difference greater than 400€ between the price of their shopping cart versus their usual weekly shopping cart budget
  • Having aberrant body mass index (i.e. >55 or <11 for women and <13 for men)

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: SCREENING
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: NONE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: 5-Color Nutrition Label (5-CNL)
The 5-CNL front-of-pack nutrition labeling is affixed on the front-of-pack of foodstuffs of the experimental web-based supermarket
Behavioral: 5-CNL
The 5-CNL front-of-pack nutrition label is introduced on foodstuffs in a controlled shopping environment
EXPERIMENTAL: Mutiple Traffic Lights (MTL)
The MTL front-of-pack nutrition labeling is affixed on the front-of-pack of foodstuffs of the experimental web-based supermarket
Behavioral: MTL
The MTL front-of-pack nutrition label is introduced on foodstuffs in a controlled shopping environment
EXPERIMENTAL: Guidelines Daily Amounts (GDA)
The GDA front-of-pack nutrition labeling is affixed on the front-of-pack of foodstuffs of the experimental web-based supermarket
Behavioral: GDA
The GDA front-of-pack nutrition label is introduced on foodstuffs in a controlled shopping environment
EXPERIMENTAL: Green Tick (Tick)
The Tick front-of-pack nutrition labeling is affixed on the front-of-pack of foodstuffs of the experimental web-based supermarket
Behavioral: Tick
The Tick front-of-pack nutrition label is introduced on foodstuffs in a controlled shopping environment
NO_INTERVENTION: No label
No front-of-pack nutrition labeling is affixed on the front-of-pack of foodstuffs of the experimental web-based supermarket

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Overall nutritional quality of the shopping cart
Time Frame: up to 27 weeks
The overall nutritional quality of the shopping cart is estimated by computing the Food Standards Agency (FSA) nutrient profiling system for 100 g of the cart (i.e. sum of the FSA score of all products, divided by the number of products chosen)
up to 27 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Caloric value of the shopping cart
Time Frame: up to 27 weeks
The caloric value of the shopping cart is calculated for 100 g of the cart
up to 27 weeks
Nutrients content of the shopping cart
Time Frame: up to 27 weeks
The nutrients content (i.e. lipids, saturated fatty acids, sugars, proteins, fibers, sodium) of the shopping cart is calculated for 100 g of the cart
up to 27 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Paris 13

Collaborators

Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale, France

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Serge Hercberg, Pr, EREN

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

December 1, 2014

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

December 1, 2014

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

June 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 26, 2015

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 10, 2015

First Posted (ESTIMATE)

March 11, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ESTIMATE)

May 11, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 10, 2016

Last Verified

May 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Nutrinet SM1

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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